Asme and Aiche Partner Host Briefing on Strengthening America’s Manufacturing Heartland

As the lead institute of the Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) Manufacturing USA Institute, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), Executive Director June Wispelwey opened the briefing by highlighting not only the importance of the RAPID Institute’s investment in advancing breakthrough technologies to boost domestic energy productivity by 20 percent in five years through manufacturing processes, but also in the Manufacturing USA program as a whole.

ASME Legislative Fellow Andy Bicos in the Office of Congressman Tom Reed moderated the event, introducing the following panelists:

• Karen Fletcher, Chief Executive Officer, Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) Institute
• Billy Bardin, Global Operations Technology Director, The Dow Chemical Company
• Mark Gaalswyk, Founder and Chairman, Easy Energy Systems
• Thomas Hedberg, Project Manager, Digital Thread for Smart Manufacturing & Co-leader, Smart Manufacturing Systems Test Bed, National Institutes of Standards and Technology (Invited)
• T. Bond Calloway, Associate Laboratory Director, Savannah River National Laboratory & AIChE President

The above panelists spoke to how innovative technologies are investments in the future of American manufacturing and America’s heartland, where the decline of good-paying manufacturing jobs has hit hardest. They stressed that when businesses of all sizes from across the country work together on early-stage, pre-competitive research, they overcome their toughest technology challenges and accelerate impact.

Each speaker touched upon the importance of working in partnership with academia and government as such ventures unleash manufacturing efficiency and energy savings, streamline readiness and supply, improve flexibility, set standards and develop our workforce.

A number of public-private partnerships, including Manufacturing USA, are convening companies, universities, industrial research organizations, and national laboratories to accelerate new technologies that increase U.S. competitiveness and secure America’s future. Products including modular process intensification, smart manufacturing, and robotics  are being made using advanced manufacturing technologies and see impacts in a broad range of industries, including chemicals, oil and gas, composites, textiles, food, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, and more. As these advances in manufacturing continue to enable innovations in other fields, stakeholders are beginning the critical next step of developing and standardizing manufacturing best practices across industries.

Please check back at the House Manufacturing Caucus’ website to view the recording once it has been posted: https://housemanufacturingcaucus-reed.house.gov/